Gamer's post-purchase add-ons, for short / SAT 11-18-23 / Certain descriptor after a signature nowadays / Brown-y points, for short? / Treatment for someone in transition, in brief

Constructor: Hoang-Kim Vu

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: DLC (35D: Gamer's post-purchase add-ons, for short) —

Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain additional revenue from a title after it has been purchased, often using some type of microtransaction system.

DLC can range from cosmetic content, such as skins, to new in-game content such as characters, levels, modes, and larger expansions that may contain a mix of such content as a continuation of the base game. In some games, multiple DLC (including future DLC not yet released) may be bundled as part of a "season pass"—typically at a discount in comparison to purchasing each DLC individually.

While the Dreamcast was the first home console to support DLC (albeit in a limited form due to hardware and internet connection limitations), Microsoft's Xbox console and Xbox Live platform helped to popularize the concept. Since the seventh generation of video game consoles, DLC has been a prevalent feature of most major video game platforms with internet connectivity.

Since the popularization of microtransactions in online distribution platforms such as Steam, the term DLC has become a [synonym] for any form of paid content in video games, regardless of whether they constitute the download of new content. Furthermore, this led to the creation of the oxymoronic term "on-disc DLC" for content included on the game's original files, but locked behind a paywall. (wikipedia)

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The thing about DLC is, while you (or someone) might say "any gamer would know that," there's still the problem of non-gamers, and how in the world they would even begin to come at these three letters. It's the "Seemingly Random Three Letters" that is really the ugly, exclusionary part here. I think of all the garbage that clutters up the grid, so much of it 3-letter abbrs., and then I think "Why ... would you want to add to that?" Why would you want this Roman numeral-looking chunk of stray letters smack dab in the middle of your grid? Just because an answer is new (and this is, in fact, a debut answer) does not mean that it is "fresh" or "good." I do not mind learning new terminology, new slang, etc., but DLC is just ugly on its face—and the fact that its letters are barely inferable makes it uglier. I tried to figure out what the letters meant and the only thing I could come up with seemed way too vague to be right ... and yet it was. Downloadable Content. Where "Loadable" gets its own letter (?!). I don't think HRT (hormone replacement therapy) is great fill, but it's a thing anyone might have heard of, and its letters are reasonably inferable. Ditto CPU. I think SETI stands for Signs of Extraterrestrial Intelligence ... damn, it's "Search," not "Signs." Well, close enough. 

Look, I'm used to not knowing things. I'm reminded every day, with nearly every puzzle, that I don't know A Lot of Things. It's fine. It's normal. I mean, eventually I had to suck it up and learn SANSA, for god's sake. But DLC just feels worse than other Things I Don't Know because it's an ugly abbr. with uninferable letters. It's a type of answer that constructors should be trying to minimize, not highlight by putting it dead center. I have no idea what a FOAM PARTY is either, but at least I recognize the words FOAM and PARTY, and the answer at least sounds like something that might be interesting to learn about. DLC has none of these qualities. Even when you figure out what the letters stand for (I managed to guess right, but it felt like a wild guess) the term "downloadable content" hardly sparkles. It's got that bland dystopian businessspeak quality that seems to dominate so much tech-related discourse. The horrible thing is that, two years from now, DLC will appear again and I'll probably have this same "What Are Those Letters!?" reaction. I wrote this long-ass opening paragraph, in part, as insurance against just such an event. Will it work? I hope never to find out.

Let's look now at the other 190 letters in this grid. The central stack was not worth DLC, but it was pretty good. The COLUMNIST part of FOOD COLUMNIST made me roll my eyes and say "la di dah, looks like the food writer has bought himself a top hat and a monocle," but OK, sure COLUMNIST, if you insist. None of the rest of the grid was terribly exciting, though if I'd known what a FOAM PARTY was, maybe that would've been exciting. I like the SE corner of this grid a good deal. I wonder if VISUAL GAG was FOOD COLUMNIST's similarly socially aspirational date to this FOAM PARTY, because in the non-caviar world we call them "sight gags." Still,  that answer was acceptable, and CLAW GAME and "HOW WAS IT?" are fun and solid. 

Beyond DLC, nothing really grated, except maybe ZOOM HOST (1A: Modern meeting organizer). I had trouble with the HOST part, despite being one, technically, for over a year during the peak of the pandemic. This may explain my aversion to ZOOM content. I just don't want to think about ZOOM any more than I have to. Anyway, I didn't know "organizer" was supposed to be a person, so I had ZOOM MENU (!?) in there for a bit. I had PASS ON before PASS UP (21D: Turn down), and I really struggled to get HE/HIM because I don't exactly understand how "signature" is being used in the clue (22A: Certain descriptor after a signature nowadays). Is any appearance of your name considered a "signature" now? Because I've only seen pronouns typed out after a typed out name (online, on name tags, etc.). This clue probably means an “email signature.” I still think of "signature" as something done by hand. Stupid 20th-century me.

Explaining:

• 50D: The 411 (DEETS) — The 411, the information, the details ... the DEETS
• 
  28A: Brown-y points, for short? (TDS) — look, I'm just guessing here, but ... let's say Jim Brown? It's a weird clue, considering lots of Browns have been football stars. Antonio Brown, for instance, is a 7-time Pro Bowler. Tim Brown is in the Hall of Fame. Actually, I think the clue wants you to think of the team, the Cleveland Browns. "Brown-y points" is a pun that is both painful and unclear. 
• 62A: Sessions of congress? (TRYSTS) — So, "sexual congress," as the kids say nowadays
• 38D: Curing technique (DRY SALT) — "DRY-SALT" is a verb meaning "to cure or preserve (meat, hides, etc.) by drying and salting" (dictionary.com). "Dry curing" also appears to be a technique ... also involving salt ... and "dry brining," same ... they all seem like vaguely similar things? 
• 47A: Leaves for lunch, maybe (SALAD) — ah, the "Leaves" pun in the SALAD clue. An oldie but a goodie.
• 4D: Charybdis, for one (MAELSTROM) — whoo, this one is kinda hard! Everyone (give or take) is familiar with Scylla & Charybdis, but they're kinda used metaphorically. I don't think a Ton of thought is usually given to what *exactly* they are. I thought Charybdis was an underwater monster that *created* MALESTROMs (i.e. "large whirlpools capable of dragging a ship under water"). But wikipedia tells me that "In some variations of the story, Charybdis was simply a large whirlpool instead of a sea monster." So OK, I guess Charybdis = MAELSTROM does compute, then. See, I do like learning things! Destructive Like Charybdis! There's a DLC I can get behind.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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